Visiting Your Child at School

Safety is a high priority in Texas public schools. When children are in the care of the public school system, staff takes necessary measures to protect students from harm, including contact with unsafe visitors. At the same time, because family involvement is extremely important for a student’s success, schools have an open-door policy for parents and guardians.

The compromise is to have a process that allows family to easily visit the campus while safeguarding against people who should not be on school property. Most schools have a visitor policy in place.

Check-in

Check-in procedures vary from campus to campus. At some schools, you must sign in at the main office and get a visitor badge or pass. In other schools, there are high-tech systems such as the Raptor V-Soft visitor management system, which enables schools to electronically check all visitors against registered sex offender databases. Though you will need to provide your driver license (or other government-issued ID), the process takes less than a minute.

Observation

If you want to observe your child while class is in session, call the office ahead of time to determine if you should set an appointment with the teacher or principal for the day you want to observe.

When observing the classroom, it is recommended that you limit your visit to 30 minutes or less so that students will not be distracted. Keep in mind that classroom observation does not take the place of parent-teacher conferences.

Lunch

At most schools, parents are welcome to visit the cafeteria and eat lunch with their child. Eating lunch with your child at school is a great way to be involved with your child’s daily school experience.

Divorced Parents

If a student's parents are divorced, both parents—not just the custodial parent— have the right to visit the school. A parent will be prevented from visiting a child only if the school is shown a court order that specifically denies visitation rights to that parent.